Israeli troops further closed in on the largest hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Wednesday, ordering thousands of Palestinians sheltering at the facility to evacuate amid reports that Israeli snipers have been shooting people trying to flee the compound.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which has waged a devastating and illegal war on Gaza’s healthcare system, claimed without evidence that it has information proving that Hamas “continues to conduct military activities within Nasser Hospital complex” — echoing the al-Shifa Hospital allegations that were found to be spurious.
“If Hamas does not stop this terrorist activity, within 12 hours, the IDF reserves its right to act against these actions according to international law,” the Israeli military said in a statement Wednesday.
The statement intensified fears that Israeli troops, which have encircled the hospital for weeks, are preparing to storm a medical facility overrun with wounded patients and displaced people seeking refuge from Israeli airstrikes.
More than 8,000 people are believed to be inside Nasser Hospital, and around 400 are reportedly in critical condition.
“We won’t leave the hospital without our patients,” Nahed Abu Taeema, the hospital’s head of surgery, told The New York Times on Wednesday.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said Wednesday that he is “alarmed” by developments at Nasser Hospital, noting that “hostilities have reportedly destroyed storage facilities for medical equipment and supplies.”
Tedros said that two WHO missions have been denied access to the facility over the past several days and that the organization has lost contact with Nasser’s personnel.
“Nasser is the backbone of the health system in southern Gaza. It must be protected,” said Tedros. “Humanitarian access must be allowed. Hospitals must be safeguarded so that they can serve their life-saving function. They must not be militarized or attacked.”
Israel’s evacuation orders came after Al Jazeera reported that Israeli snipers stationed outside of the Nasser Hospital complex have been shooting civilians outside the facility and medical staff on the inside.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said last week that Israeli snipers were “shooting at every moving object” around the hospital, including people trying to reach the facility from nearby neighborhoods. At least 21 Palestinians were killed by Israeli sniper fire on Friday, according to Al Jazeera.
“Attack drones also targeted a group of young people who gathered on the roof of the hospital,” said Mahmoud. “Because of the communications blackout, they were trying to get signals for the internet on their mobile phones so they could communicate with family members.”
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor confirmed Tuesday that a Palestinian civilian was killed “by an Israeli quadcopter aircraft” while “attempting to obtain Internet signals” from the roof of Nasser Hospital.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that video footage from the Khan Younis hospital “showed dozens of Palestinians carrying their belongings in sacks and making their way out” of the complex.
The IDF claimed Wednesday that it had “opened a secure route to evacuate the civilian population taking shelter in the area of the Nasser Hospital” toward a so-called “humanitarian zone.” The Financial Times reported that the IDF “declined to say where this zone was located.”
“In an audio message sent to the Financial Times by a nurse at the Nasser compound, women could be heard weeping over the sounds of distant gunfire and an Israeli military loudspeaker delivering instructions,” the newspaper added. “The nurse, who declined to be identified, said that evacuees — including the elderly and some wounded — were being held at a checkpoint.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.